“The Hummingbird: A Jewel in the Garden”
Carol opened her talk by giving an overview of the work of the Vancouver Avian Research Centre (VARC). The centre does research on attracting hummingbirds to the garden and provides data and research to support habitat. This work takes place at Colony Farm in Coquitlam which is open for tour.
She gave a short oversight of the state of the world’s birds which unfortunately is not pretty as many species are heading for extinction. The major problem is overpopulation and there is just not enough room for the world’s people and wildlife as well. Things that can be done to help include making windows safe day and night; dots on the window really help and can be obtained from Lee Valley tools. Cats should be kept indoors and lawns replaced with native species.
Carol introduced some delightful and interesting hummingbirds which are only found the America’s with the greatest variety in South America. Only twelve varieties are found in North America. In Canada there is only one species in the east and four in BC. In the Lower Mainland the species found are Anna’s and Rufous. The Anna’s overwinter in Vancouver however the Rufous winters in Mexico and birds have been known to fly 2,000 km without stopping. They fly down by a mountain route in the fall to take advantage of the late flowers and come back by the coast where the spring flowers are in bloom.
Carol closed her talk by talking about feeders and stressed that if birds are fed in the winter then this must be consistent with no holiday breaks. Several feeders spread apart work well and they should be filled with water and sugar in a 4 to 1 ratio. Hummingbirds eat nectar and some insects.